It’s been a little while since I’ve gone out and about purely with the purpose of sketching. So it was exciting to get back into it on Sunday at the Bump and Boo event at Winchester Guildhall.

Aimed at parents and parents-to-be, it was a busy day packed with stalls and talks with activities and play spaces for little ones too. It was great reminder of all the organisations that are in the local area ready to help families. The Guildhall is also such a pretty venue, it makes a lovely back drop 🙂

It took me a little while to find my sketching vibe again; when I was a student I had no qualms about drawing everyone all the time and simply sitting in a corner doodling but this time I felt quite self-conscious! And of course when you’re drawing people out and about they move, which is part of the challenge and can lead to some lovely quick marks.

But looking back at the sketches, I think I caught some of the friendly and buzzy atmosphere…

It was like entering a bit of a magical treasure trove for families.

This was only Bump and Boo’s second event so far, and it was so buzzing and vibrant.

And after buying a gorgeous pair of leggings from Equally Awesome for my purple-obsessed little boy, I had a big chat with Rachel who makes everything about how hard it is to find fun boys clothes, especially as they get bigger. Baby stuff can be cute, but a lot of the bigger boy’s clothes are just mini versions of boring men’s clothes. Also, not enough unicorns (or enough purple) for our family’s tastes. I stood for a while to do a longer sketch of Rachel’s colourful stall:

Thanks and well done Bump and Boo! Not only was it a fabulous event, it was also such a lovely opportunity to get back into some quick drawing. They will also now have some cute sketches to us in their promotional material, hopefully helping the next event to be even bigger and better!

Over the last couple of weeks, anti-racism has reached the knitting and crafting communities online in a big way. It’s undoubtedly been incredibly tough for the people of colour who have been doing an awful lot of emotional labour to educate white people (like me) about their experiences of exclusion and racism, and show us that even the (superficially) fluffy knitting world is racist. I’m incredibly grateful and humbled by their hard work and bravery.

It’s brought amazing activists and educators like Rachel Cargle and Layla Saad to the attention of lots of us crafters. I’ve been slowly Doing The Work and considering how much white supremacy really isn’t a thing of the past, or just the purview of a few extremists in white hoods – it’s EVERYWHERE and something that I benefit from. I’ve also been discovering amazing activists challenging gender (and race) issues, like Alok.

When I’ve found the work challenging, I try keep in mind the image of how I would like a man to react to #metoo.

You know how Kavanaugh and Trump made Christine Blasey Ford’s hearing all about men, and how hard it was for the poor men of the world to be attacked in such a way, when SHE was the one who was threatened and terrified…? Yeah, that’s the opposite of what the world needs right now. We white people need to shut up, sit down, listen, shut up some more and not make it about us. And then we need to make some changes to how we behave, so that we challenge exclusion when we see it, and build things from the ground up that are open to everyone.

The gorgeous hashtag on Instaram #diverseknitty has also helped amazing creatives from around the world share their wonderful work with new followers and fans.

There are also, I hope, lots of other makers, podcasters, brands, shows and shops who are considering how they can be more inclusive and reach out to make everyone feel welcome.

I don’t have a physical shop (or really do much out in the real world at all to be honest right now!), but I wanted to draw something to let everyone know that they are welcome in my online spaces.

Whatever your background, or however you identify, you are always welcome here.

And if you’d like to collaborate or if there’s something I can do to help you feel more included or access my work, just give me a shout.

The 1st of January saw the announcement of the grand total raised by the Flower Power Fund. I posted on Instagram about it on New Year’s Eve, with a bit of back story as to how I became involved in this brilliant community fundraiser…

Honestly, when Sarah first got in touch with an idea to raised funds by asking independent dyers to create flower-inspired yarns, she thought she might raise £1,000. She also involved other crafters, ran a MARATHON and had regular raffles (all while working as a Doctor for Marie Curie).

Sarah had an existing network of lovely creatives, which just blossomed and really got behind her (self titled) slightly bonkers idea with such enthusiasm.

A post shared by FlowerPowerFund (@flowerpowerfund) on Jan 1, 2019 at 8:13am PST

£22,628.91 raised for Marie Curie!!!!

A new yarn was released every month (sometimes more than one) with the dyers donating a percentage of the proceeds. A lot of the yarn sold out almost instantly, and dyers were frantically trying to keep up with orders.

A post shared by FlowerPowerFund (@flowerpowerfund) on Jan 1, 2019 at 9:52am PST

I did the branding for the project, and then drew each month’s flower and sold the prints. I also designed my first pin. A percentage of all my sales was part of the grand total. My initial thought was that I might raise £50…

But I raised £1082.12! I really hadn’t sold that much via my online and Etsy shop this time last year. I’d had a couple of really depressing attempts at craft shows and felt quite dispirited. So it was amazing when people started to buy the flower prints, and the 200 pins sold out!

I am still feeling a bit reflective and looking back at last year, thinking about what worked and what didn’t, what rocked and what flopped, so that I can put some really solid plans in for the coming year. My little social business is still in the early stages in a lot of ways and I am excited about helping it to flourish in 2019. There are a few things in the pipeline, and if you have a project or idea you think I could help with, do get in touch 🙂

The Yarn Badger very kindly donated 5 Goose Eye hat kits in different colours (with a name like that, they had to get involved). 100% of the sale price of each kit is going to the badgers! They include yarn and instructions, and are selling quick, so do order soon if you want one. You can find them here.

My lovely and talented friend Jane Brumwell made beautiful Stirling silver and copper progress keepers. They are each rolled with the impression of a skeleton leaf, and are so delicate. Each one is unique! You can find them in the shop here.

This is my final drawing for #mabsdrawlloween club. It combines a few of the prompts and a spell for the badgers – with herbs of protection, healing and invisibility at the bottom. Here’s a Samhain wish for the safe passage of badgers, ravens, monsters and other misunderstood creatures that go bump in the night. Happy Halloween 🙂 xx

Our black and white stripy celebration of Halloween has seen a flurry of beautiful badger-inspired work. This not only helps support our wild badgers through fundraising, we’re also raising awareness about the cruel and unnecessary badger cull here in the UK. AND we’re reminding people what they are in danger of losing. We don’t want the badgers to only exist in our art; we want them safe and protected in our fields and woodlands, where they belong.

Here’s a bit of a showcase of badger-y crafts (spoiler alert: there’s more to come!).

I didn’t manage to keep up with every single prompt for Mab’s Drawlloween Club on Instagram, but I have a lot of fun trying! A lot of the spooky prompts actually really made me think about badgers and why it’s so important to me that we try and help them.

Badgerween is a black and white stripy celebration of Halloween from the Badger Sett – a group of compassionate creatives fundraising for the Badger Trust. We are supporting their badger vaccination project, a positive alternative to the cull which is being increasingly rolled out across the UK.

I’m also still busy drawing things,and have been following some of the prompts for #mabsdrawlloweenclub on Instagram. I wanted to draw something that touched on why the Badger Sett exists – so drew some ghost badgers, a haunted badger cage and a laboratory…